Gold says he opened escrow Monday and is in the process of raising the remaining capital. "I hope this deal goes through," he says. He recently had been looking in Sherman Oaks.

"The idea is I want it to be my home -- it’s an intimate enough space and small enough," Gold says. "If you were going to dinner, I'd want you to say, 'Let’s go see Mark at his house tonight and see what he's cooking.' "

Gold formerly was chef at Cafe Pinot and at Leatherby's Cafe Rouge, where he garnered three stars from Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila. Plans for EVA are to "keep the menu small, very seasonal and market-driven, with $20 entrees, not $30 entrees," Gold says.